Local youth apply for grant to convert recyclables to rice

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Penn Valley's Thane Messer, left, is applying for a grant to help youth turn recyclables into money for the food bank. Community members can vote for his project online. Assisting him with the project is Spanish exchange student Jaime Saiz de la Peña.

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Penn Valley teenager Thane Messer has spent the past four years gathering recycling in his neighborhood, turning it in at the dump and buying food for the hungry. Now Messer’s social entrepreneur classmates are joining him to raise money for the next phase of the project — getting more youth in other local neighborhoods to gather their recycling and turn it in to feed hungry people in the county. The students are applying for a $2,500 grant through goodmaker.com to create kits for local neighborhood teams. The grant is awarded by popular online vote, which ends at noon Thursday. Vote online at this link: http://community1.maker.good.is/projects/recycletofood?sort=popular.

The “Recycle to Rice” neighborhood kits will include all items to execute the project in each neighborhood: collapsible recycle bins, team T-shirts and letter templates to ask neighbors to save their recycling. The grant will also enable all team members to gather once a month to turn in proceeds and celebrate their commitment to the community. Proceeds will be donated to the Food Bank of Nevada County.

Thane Messer was able to raise $360 per year to feed hungry people. If 15 other young people performed the same function in their neighborhoods, they could raise $4,500 per year. There are 100 other submissions on goodmaker.com to improve communities that the class is competing against. Vote online to approve “Recycle to Rice.”